In idling, the motor's running, but you're letting your mind take in anything. Things pop into it. Those are the gifts of subterranean conscious.
Mortimer AdlerRead
You have to allow a certain amount of time in which you are doing nothing in order to have things occur to you, to let your mind think.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Taking time for rest and reflection is essential for creativity and thought.
Mortimer Adler highlights the importance of giving oneself space and time to think, suggesting that periods of inactivity can facilitate creativity and allow new ideas to emerge. Without moments of stillness, our minds may become cluttered, hindering the process of thinking deeply and effectively.
Themes
ThinkingCreativityRestReflectionMindfulness
In practice
Example use cases
You might use this quote during a workshop on creativity to emphasize the importance of downtime.
More from Mortimer Adler
All quotes βThe only standard we have for judging all of our social, economic, and political institutions and arrangements as just or unjust, as good or bad, as better or worse, derives from our conception of the good life for man on earth, and from our conviction that, given certain external conditions, it is possible for men to make good lives for themselves by their own efforts.
Mortimer AdlerRead
A good book can teach you about the world and about yourself. You learn more than how to read better; you also learn more about life. You become wiser.
Mortimer AdlerRead
If you are reading in order to become a better reader, you cannot read just any book or article. You will not improve as a reader if all you read are books that are well within your capacity. You must tackle books that are beyond you, or, as we have said, books that are over your head. Only books of that sort will make you stretch your mind. And unless you stretch, you will not learn.
Mortimer AdlerRead
In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you.
Mortimer AdlerRead
If your friend wishes to read your 'Plutarch's Lives,' 'Shakespeare,' or 'The Federalist Papers,' tell him gently but firmly, to buy a copy. You will lend him your car or your coat - but your books are as much a part of you as your head or your heart.
Mortimer AdlerRead
Similar quotes
Knowledge is not for knowing: knowledge is for cutting.
Michel FoucaultRead
Would you rather live your life according to the approval of others or aligned with your truth and your dreams?
Robin SharmaRead
The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead
I couldn't care less what anybody says about me. I live my life, especially my personal life, strictly for myself... Whatever you do, you're going to be criticized. I feel the one sensible thing you can do is try to live in a way that pleases you.
Johnny CarsonRead
Some critics are stimulating in that they make you realise how you could do better, and those are valued.
Francis Ford CoppolaRead
Thy words, I grant are bigger, for I wear not, my dagger in my mouth.
William ShakespeareRead